Trump’s War Against Narco-Terrorists at Sea Expands to Pacific Ocean
In a dramatic escalation of the Trump administration’s maritime war against narcoterrorism, U.S. Secretary of War Pete Hegseth announced the first deadly military strike outside the Caribbean Sea, targeting and destroying a drug trafficking vessel off the Pacific coast of Colombia.
Hegseth announced the eighth military strike against a narco-terrorist drug trafficking vessel on Wednesday. The military strike that destroyed the boat and killed two people on board was the first to be carried out outside the Caribbean Sea area of operations.
In a social media post on X, Hegseth said the strike occurred Tuesday in the eastern Pacific Ocean, just off the coast of Colombia. Hegseth said the strike marks an expansion of President Donald Trump’s military campaign against narcoterrorist cartels at sea, saying, “Yesterday, at the direction of President Trump, the War Department conducted a deadly kinetic strike on a vessel operated by a designated terrorist organization conducting narcotics trafficking in the Eastern Pacific. »
According to Hegseth, the eighth kinetic military strike targeted a vessel known to military intelligence to be involved in illicit narcotics trafficking and which was transiting a maritime transit route known for narcotics trafficking. Hegseth added: “There were two narcoterrorists on board the ship during the strike, which was carried out in international waters. Both terrorists were killed and no U.S. forces were injured in this strike.”
Hegseth’s announcement contained an ominous warning to narcoterrorists that kinetic military strikes would continue.
“Narcoterrorists who intend to bring poison to our shores will find no safe haven anywhere in our hemisphere,” the secretary of state said. “Just as Al-Qaeda waged war against our homeland, these cartels are waging war on our borders and our people. There will be no refuge or forgiveness, only justice.”
According to a report by the US Naval Institute News (USIN), at least 34 people have been killed so far in the kinetic military strikes against narcoterrorists. Eleven drug traffickers were killed in the first strike in the Caribbean Sea on September 2, Breitbart Texas’ Bob Price reported. During this military action, Trump administration officials indicated that the ship carrying the 11 drug traffickers was of Venezuelan origin and was operated by members of the notorious Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua.
Breitbart reported that President Trump designated the gang and several drug cartels as foreign terrorist organizations in an executive order on his first day in office. The executive order is titled “Designation of Cartels and Other Organizations as Foreign Terrorist Organizations and Specially Designated Global Terrorists.”
The unprecedented military kinetic strikes at sea are drawing criticism from some Democrats who question the president’s authority to carry out strikes against drug traffickers. Last week, Congressman Adam Smith (D-Wash.), the top Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee, requested a congressional hearing on the use of military means to conduct kinetic strikes.
In mid-October, the Center for Constitutional Rights and the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) criticized the military campaign against narcoterrorists. They filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request for guidance from the Office of Legal Counsel and other related documents regarding the targeting of narcotics traffickers.
In an announcement from the ACLU regarding the filing of the request. the organization made no mention of the more than 80,000 drug overdose deaths in the United States in 2024. Attorney Jeffrey Stein of the ACLU’s National Security Project issued a statement on narco-terrorist military strikes, saying, “All available evidence suggests that President Trump’s deadly strikes in the Caribbean constitute outright murder.” He added: “The public deserves to know how our government justifies these attacks as legal, and given the stakes, immediate public scrutiny of its seemingly radical theories is imperative.” »
Randy Clark is a 32-year veteran of the United States Border Patrol. Prior to his retirement, he served as Division Chief of Law Enforcement Operations, directing operations of nine Border Patrol stations in the Del Rio Sector, Texas. Follow him on X (formerly Twitter) @RandyClarkBBTX.
